Video: Mickey Moniak highlights
San Diego area has now produced two of the last three No. 1 picks.
For most of the 2016 high school baseball season, the big question was who would be the top high school player chosen in the Major League Baseball Draft,
Jason Groome or
Riley Pint.
Turns out the answer was
Mickey Moniak.
The
La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad, Calif.) prep became the first high school player drafted in the 2016 MLB first year player selection when he went to the Philadelphia Phillies with the No. 1 overall pick Thursday.
For most of the season, Groome, a lefthanded pitcher from
Barnegat (N.J.) looked like the No. 1 overall selection in the draft, let alone the No. 1 high school player chosen.
However, a transfer snafu led to Groome being suspended by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association early in the season after returning home from IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.). His stock gradually slipped over the final month of the season.
Mickey Moniak hit .476 in 124 plate appearances this season, piling up 46 RBIs and seven home runs.
Photo by Heston Quan
If not Groome, then certainly Pint, a righthanded pitcher, would be the top high school player chosen. Pint reached 100 mph on his fastball during the Kansas Class 5A state playoffs and had been tabbed in several mock drafts as the top high school pitcher ahead of Groome.
Moniak was chosen ahead of Pint, however, not because Pint's stock fell, but because Moniak's stock rose. After not showing much power at the plate throughout the first three years of his high school career, Moniak went on a power surge his senior season, belting seven home runs. He has also shown to be one of the best contact hitters in the nation and that type of hitting ability has resulted in his name rising from not even being a first round pick to being the No. 1 overall player chosen.
Moniak is the second San Diego-area player chosen as the top prep in past three seasons, joining Brady Aiken of
Cathedral Catholic (San Diego), who was the first overall pick selected in 2014. He's the fourth San Diego prep player chosen No. 1 since 2000, joining Aiken, Adrian Gonzalez of
Eastlake (Chula Vista) in 2000 and Matt Bush of
Mission Bay (San Diego) in 2004.
A fifth San Diego-area player, Stephen Strasburg of
West Hills (Santee), was chosen out of San Diego State.
